The present invention relates to a system for and method of implementing wireless neighborhood area networks (wireless NAN or WNAN).
Wireless NANs are a type of “Packet-Switched Wireless Mobile Data Networks.” Examples of prior packet-switched wireless mobile data networks are ARDIS (also known as DATATAC or Motient), MOBITEX, and Metricom's Ricochet. Wireless NANs are flexible packet switched networks whose geographical area of coverage could be designed to be anywhere from the coverage area of a wireless local area network (WLAN), to wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), to wireless wide area networks (WWAN).
FIGS. 6 and 7 show the taxonomy of two prior art wireless networks 10 and 20. As depicted in FIGS. 6 and 7, typical wireless networks have three major components: 1) the end-users' wireless devices 25 (e.g., phone, pager, personal data assistant, laptop computers, handheld mobile computing devices, etc.), 2) collection of radio-frequency transceivers installed over a geographical area of coverage 30 (e.g., cellular telephone towers and base stations spread around town associated with a cellular telephony system as shown in FIG. 6; wireless access points installed within a building associated with a wireless local area network as shown in FIG. 7; etc.), and 3) the infrastructure interconnecting the collection of radio-frequency (RF) transceivers among themselves 35 (e.g., wire-line infrastructure interconnecting cellular base stations in FIG. 6 and wire-line data network interconnecting wireless access points in FIG. 7, etc.) and to other wire-line networks (e.g., the Internet, the public switched telephone network, etc.). For example, as depicted in FIG. 6, an existing wireless cellular telephony system 10 has cellular telephones that communicate with base stations via RF transceivers. The base stations communicate with other base stations and with other networks (e.g., the public switched telephone network) using fixed structure and wire-line interconnectivity. As a further example and as depicted in FIG. 7, wireless mobile computing devices in a wireless local area network environment communicate with wireless access points. The wireless access points in turn communicate with other access points and with other networks (e.g., the Internet) using fixed wireline infrastructure.
Implementation of affordable commercial high-speed (1 to 100 Mbps) wireless wide-area networks capable of supporting TCP/IP-compatible audio, video, and data applications has been hampered due to the high cost of the fixed infrastructure and the wireline components of such wireless wide area networks (i.e., the high cost of the 2nd and the 3rd components described above). For example, for a wireless mobile data system, the cost of establishing the wire-line infrastructure that supports high-speed communication with a plurality of wireless devices hampers the implementation of such high-speed networks. Consequently, known existing implementations of terrestrial wireless wide-area networks (including the three examples mentioned above) are not capable of supporting high-speed data services and are not capable of delivering an integrated set of audio, video, and data services to users.
There is an interest for an alternative and cost-effective method for implementing general-purpose high-speed (1 to 100 Mbps) wireless wide-area networks capable of supporting integrated voice, video and data services for mobile devices.